Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu and Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid I. Brezhnev met in the Crimea to discuss ways of increasing party contact between their countries, the Soviet news agency Tass reported. Ceausescu was in the Soviet Union on a vacation. The two leaders, according to Tass, exchanged opinions on how to put into effect ideas agreed to at the European Communist Conference in East Berlin in June.
Valery Sablin, a Soviet Navy officer who had led a mutiny in 1975 on the anti-submarine ship Storozhevoy on November 8, 1975, was executed after being found guilty of treason in a court-martial.
The Soviet Union today told the United States, Britain and France that participation by West Berlin in elections to the European Parliament would violate the 1971 four‐power agreement on the city. The press agency Tass said the three governments were told that West Berlin could not be governed by the European Economic Community “no matter what pretexts are made for this.” “West Berlin’s direct or indirect participation in the elections to the ‘European Parliament’ would mean gross violation of the four‐party agreement,” the statement said.
Laszlo Toth says he is a non-spy who has come in from the cold. A little more than a year ago, the 44‐year‐old chemical engineer, a naturalized United States citizen, returned to his native Yugoslavia with his wife and daughter for a combined business and pleasure visit. It turned into a Kafkaesque nightmare when he was arrested, accused of economic espionage at a sugar refinery and sentenced to seven years in prison. His confinement ended July 23 when the United States Ambassador to Belgrade, Laurence H. Silberman, managed to get him released. “I can’t believe one year has passed,” he said in an interview. “Just telling you this story, it seems like I’m talking about someone else.”
The United States and West Germany have agreed to work toward a common gun and engine in their new main battle tanks, Pentagon officials said today. Under a recently signed memorandum of understanding between the two nations, the United States has agreed that the Army’s new XM‐1 tank should be armed as soon as possible with a 120 mm. gun, of the same caliber used by West Germany on its Leopard III tank. The army had been planning to equip its new tank with a 105‐mm. gun, and officials said it was still possible that the first production bloc of XM‐1 tanks would be equipped with that gun before the transition could be made to a West German or British 120‐mm. gun.
King Juan Carlos’ amnesty decree was officially published in Spain, setting off the process of freeing many of the nation’s estimated 635 political prisoners. The amnesty excludes terrorists. At the Madrid prison in suburban Carabanchel about 40 prisoners went into the second day of a hunger strike to protest what they considered the limited scope of the amnesty.
A gunman killed a British soldier with a single shot from a shotgun in Dungiven, 50 miles west of Belfast. Troops and police sealed off the area and found the shotgun, but the gunman had escaped. Earlier a sniper shot and seriously wounded a customs officer in the center of Newry.
The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said the issue of abortions for women affected by poison gas at Seveso was “definitely worrisome.” The paper said, “In difficult and even painful situations, the principle must remain of absolute respect for all innocent life, even of those not yet born as in the case of Seveso.” A regional health minister said abortion should be allowed to those affected by the gas, which spread over the Seveso area after an explosion at a chemical plant. Seveso officials said more children and pregnant women may be evacuated from the area. About 620 men, women and children have already been evacuated.
The Red Cross brought 99 wounded civilians, the first of more than a thousand, from the besieged Palestinian camp at Tell Zaatar to Moslem-controlled west Beirut, touching off an explosion of joy. The evacuees told of a water shortage for a month and no medicine except salt. The cease-fire to bring the convoy across the lines did not extend to other fronts in Beirut and the mountains.
The prosecution in the Seoul, Korea, trial of defeated presidential candidate Kim Dae Jung and 17 other dissidents asked for prison terms of up to 10 years for the defendants. Defense lawyers walked out of court to protest the judge’s rejection of all 16 defense witnesses. Kim, who was narrowly beaten by President Park Chung Hee in 1971, has denied that he tried to start an uprising against Park. He and the others on trial are charged with violating a 15-monthsold emergency decree outlawing dissension.
France has agreed to sell South Korea two nuclear power plants worth $1.2 billion, but has turned down a request for a plutonium reprocessing plant, officials in Paris said. The reprocessing plant was turned down by President Valery Giscard d’Estaing because reprocessed plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons. The two power plants will be subject to international supervision.
The six million people of the Chinese capital may be sleeping in the streets for weeks or even months because of the fear of another earthquake. Western diplomats said today. Chinese families who have lived for five days in makeshift tents or under plastic tablecloths tied to trees are strengthening their shelters, adding tables and chairs, hanging pictures of Mao Tse‐tung and settling down for a long wait. The local people are taking official warnings of a second earthquake seriously. Factories, apartments and office buildings are deserted, and banners in every street urge people to be on guard against looters. Diplomats said they had received the impression that the emergency situation could last several weeks.
The United States is selling the Chinese Nationalist government on Taiwan arms, including an advanced air defense system intended to enable the island to defend itself against an attack from mainland China without American participation. Some Washington experts feel this may help account for indications that Peking is hardening its position on reunification in the belief that only military force can accomplish it.
The United States assured Australia and New Zealand that it has the capacity and determination to counter any Soviet thrust in the Indian and Pacific oceans, according to sources in Canberra, Australia, where the defense ministers of the three nations are considering increased aid programs in the South Pacific.
The Peruvian government, in power since 1968 as a revolutionary experiment, appears to be coming apart. The government is under pressure from a consortium of United States private banks that are making strict economic and political demands in exchange for loans to cope with huge foreign debts. As the fortunes of the leftist military regime have declined, its dependence on Western financial institutions has become increasingly clear.
Concern for British subjects in Uganda heightened today, with reports from Kampala indicating that President Idi Amin was taking a tougher line since Britain’s break in diplomatic relations last week. In broadcasts and other reports reaching here from Uganda in recent days, the unpredictable President has ordered that no British flag shall fly and that any Briton seeking an audience with him must kneel because “this is the way inhabitants under British rule did it.” The French Ambassador, Pierre Renard, who is looking after British interests, is attempting to determine the fate of a Briton believed to have been arrested by security forces. He is a 38‐year‐old farmer, Graham Clegg, who lived in Uganda before moving to Kenya. Reliable sources reported that Mr. Clegg was taken into custody while driving to visit a relative, Jack Tully, in Soroti, in eastern Uganda. When Mr. Tully, a 65‐year‐old retired driller, went to the Soroti police station to inquire, he too was seized. Today the British High Commission in Kenya reported that he had been released.
An inquiry into the rioting in black South African townships last June in which 176 persons died was begun by a government-appointed commission. The group’s chairman, Justice P. M. Cillie, said that the inquiry was not a criminal investigation. He outlined the scope of the task and then adjourned the hearing until Sept. 7 to allow further evidence to be obtained.
The South African press, hemmed in by a web of legal restraints on what it can publish, faces new anxieties following the detention of four journalists by the security police last week. Police and Government officials have refused to give any reasons for the arrests. However, lawyers for the journalists have been told that they are being held under a section of the Terrorism Act that provides for the indefinite detention of anybody suspected of having information relating to state security. A senior editor at one of the newspapers involved said tonight that the paper was assuming that the arrests had to do with the journalists’ private activities. He noted that one of the four, Patrick Weech, was a copy editor at The Rand Daily Mail whose name had never appeared in the paper until his arrest.
Pennsylvania and federal epidemiologists intensified their search for a virus believed to be the cause of the mysterious flu-like disease afflicting many who attended an American Legion convention in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania health officials said at a news conference here that autopsies of four persons in different hospitals indicated that they had died of a severe viral pneumonia. The conclusion was based on findings that showed that the persons died of a type of pneumonia more generally associated with viruses than bacteria. The death toll rose to 20, with another 115 hospitalized, some in serious condition. Laboratory tests to be completed in two days may provide an answer. Pennsylvania’s Health Secretary said there was no evidence of further spread of the disease.
Concerned that a type of influenza might have caused the deaths of a score of persons in Pennsylvania, a House health subcommittee voted late today to break an impasse over legal liability coverage for President Ford’s massive swine flu vaccine program. The committee, by voice vote, approved an Administration proposal to make the Federal Government liable for injury or death claims arising out of the inoculation program.
The death toll in the Big Thompson River flood neared 100 today, as the authorities, continued to pull bodies from the rubble and the muck. Larimer County Sheriff Robert Watson, who earlier predicted that the death toll would reach 200, scaled down his estimate. “I think we’re probably, going to hit around 100 to 150, but your guess is as good as mine,” he told reporters. Survivors were airlifted to safety under bright blue skies after three days of chilly rains that hampered earlier searches in the Big Thompson Canyon, where torrential rains swelled the twisting river out of its course on Saturday night. Hundreds of people were injured, and several small communities were wiped out. Damage to residences and businesses was estimated at $5 million to $20 million. This did not include destruction to vehicles, roads and waterway equipment.
Rogers C. B. Morton, President Ford’s campaign manager, conceded that neither he nor his challenger, Ronald Reagan, would be able to “lock up” the Republican presidential nomination before the convention. This retreat was underscored by the latest findings of a New York Times canvass indicating a softening of Reagan support in the South and of Ford support in the Northeast since the choice of Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania as the Reagan running mate. Nationally, the number of uncommitted delegates has been creeping upward.
President Ford asked Congress for new legislation requiring United States businesses to report all substantial payments in foreign countries designed to aid sales to foreign governments, whether “proper or improper.” The reports would include names of recipients and could be disclosed to foreign governments. In most cases they would be made public after a year.
Jimmy Carter made sweeping promises today to act as President in ways that would restore respect for the family system, which he said had been degraded and weakened in the United States. Mr. Carter, the Democratic nominee, spoke to several hundred people at a downtown shopping mall plaza. The sparkling sunshine, blue skies and sleeveless dresses were in sharp contrast to the snow, sleet and biting cold of last February when he won New Hampshire’s first‐in‐the nation primary by a 30 percent plurality and achieved the momentum that brought him the top spot on his party’s ticket.
An attempt to oust Rep. Wayne L. Hays (D-Ohio) as chairman of a House subcommittee on international operations was rejected in a closed caucus of Democrats on the parent International Relations Committee. Hays has lost chairmanships of two major House committees because of charges that he kept a woman on his staff solely for sexual purposes. A caucus spokesman said Rep. Michael J. Harrington (D-Massachusetts), who made two motions for Hays’ removal, was unable to supply specific charges against Hays that directly affected the subcommittee chairmanship.
U.S. Congressman Jerry Litton of Missouri won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator, then died in a plane crash while flying to a victory party to celebrate his victory. Litton, his wife and their two children, and the pilot and a co-pilot were on a twin-engine Beechcraft airplane that lifted off from the airport in Chillicothe, Missouri shortly after 9:00 PM, then crashed 19 seconds later after a crankshaft broke in the left engine. The airplane, which had been chartered to fly to a victory party in Kansas City, plummeted into a soybean field and exploded on impact, killing all six people on board.
Damage to packages in the mail has been reduced, the U.S. Postal Service reports, but a House post office subcommittee received the statistics with skepticism. L. V. Dorsey, senior assistant postmaster general who acknowledged in March that many packages were being damaged by a new $1 billion automated mail handling system, said the volume of articles torn loose from their wrappers had been reduced by more than 40%. However, Rep. Paul Simon (D-IIIinois), a member of the subcommittee, said, my mail from constituents is that “The impression I get from reading things are getting worse.”
A computer programmer was sentenced to three months in jail for stealing classified information from the computers of the Federal Energy Administration. A U.S. district judge in Baltimore also ordered 33 months probation for the programmer, Bertram Seidlitz, 37, of Lanham, Maryland, who was convicted in June of two counts of wire fraud. The prosecution had argued that Seidlitz had used a computer terminal attached to his home and office telephones to tap the agency’s central computer banks.
The official papers of former President Richard M. Nixon have been moved to a government storage center in Maryland and only the most sensitive materials, including the tapes, remain in the White House complex, a spokesman for the General Services Administration reported. The move was made three months ago, with court approval, to reduce storage costs and increase protection against humidity and fire, the spokesman said. Making the move were 8,880 boxes, each weighing about 25 pounds and holding about 2,400 pages, that essentially made up the central files of the Nixon White House. Left behind at the Executive Office Building were Nixon’s personal files, special files of top staff members, papers of Nixon’s top attorneys, National Security Council records and all 920 tape recordings.
The National Urban League recommended today the establishment of a broad‐based, blue‐ribbon panel that would find ways to enforce antidiscrimination laws more effectively in government and in private industry. The civil rights organization charged that such a panel was required because the Ford Administration, Congress, the courts and industry had all failed to enforce provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in employment.
Those who took control of Howard Hughes’ huge fortune on his death are meeting in Las Vegas to try to untangle the golden threads of his empire. They must deal with problems including an indictment of the late industrialist and one of his top aides for market manipulation, the drain of paying for some of his whims and an inheritance tax bill that could take three quarters of the estate.
The Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department approved an antitrust investigation of the nation’s automobile makers. The General Motors Corporation, controlling more than half the domestic market, was thought to be the prime target. Its chairman, Thomas Murphy, said be expected to be able to show that the industry was competitive and within the law.
A federal appeals court in Washington upheld as “rational and in accordance with law” Environmental Protection Agency regulations designed to prevent air pollution. The Sierra Club had sought to invalidate the regulations on grounds that they were not sufficiently strict. Nine power companies contended that the rules went too far. The opinion by the three-judge court concluded that “the EPA administrator’s action is rationally based and has not been shown to be either without his authority or unconstitutional.”
A farmer was shot to death in his bed and his teen-aged daughter and a girl friend apparently were kidnapped, Kansas state police reported. Another daughter told the FBI she had received a telephone call from her sister. “She said that they had shot her dad and that she had been kidnapped and an $8 million ransom was demanded,” an FBI spokesman said. “She said she couldn’t talk any more because they had a gun at her head and that was the end of it.” Dead is Ralph Blevins, 59, of Harris, Kansas, a retired farmer reportedly living on a small pension. Missing are Penny Blevins, 16, and Shelia Morrison, 18, also of Harris. The FBI said Blevins had been shot several times with what was believed to be a small-caliber gun. [Ed: The girls would later be found in a motel 120 miles away, quite unkidnapped.]
Viking scientists said today that the unexplained generation of gas in a Martian soil sample had virtually stopped and that they tended to think it had not been caused by living organisms. “We are gravitating closer toward a nonbiological explanation,” said Dr. Harold P. Klein, head of the Viking biology team. “But we are not 100 percent sure it’s not biological.” The puzzling soil activity in one of three Viking experiments was likely a result of a chemical process in which oxygen in Mars’s rusty surface was released by sunlight and decomposed a liquid food fed to the soil sample, scientists said.
Major League Baseball:
Cito Gaston, who had batted just 40 times previously for the Braves this season, homered on each of his first two trips to the plate and drove in five runs to escort Andy Messersmith to a 7–3 victory over the Padres. Gaston homered in the first inning after a single by Rod Gilbreath and connected for the circuit again in the third following hits by Darrel Chaney and Gilbreath. Later in the third inning, Dave May batted in two more runs with a single.
Blue Moon Odom, making his first start for the White Sox since combining with Francisco Barrios in pitching a no-hitter at Oakland July 28, was the victim of revenge, losing to the Athletics, 7–3. Odom lasted only 2 ⅔ innings and gave up six hits and four runs. The Athletics went on to pile up a total of 13 hits with Bill North and Joe Rudi rapping three apiece.
After being shut out by Rick Reuschel in the first game, 4–0, the Phillies came back to beat the Cubs in the second game of a doubleheader, 8–5, with the aid of a grand-slam homer by Garry Maddox. Reuschel scattered nine hits and had the backing of homers by Wayne Tyrone and Jerry Morales. Tyrone’s circuit clout was the first of his major league career. In the nightcap, the Phillies erupted for four runs in the first inning and added their other four in the fourth when Tim McCarver and Larry Bowa singled, Dave Cash walked and Maddox hit his jackpot wallop.
Dennis Eckersley pitched a three-hitter for the Indians and came out the winner when pinch-hitter Tommy Smith delivered a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning to beat the Red Sox, 1–0. Luis Tiant, who started for the Red Sox, also yielded only three hits before giving way to Tom Murphy in the 10th. Rico Carty greeted the reliever with a single and was forced by Boog Powell, who took third on a single by Buddy Bell. Ron Pruitt then took Powell’s place on the paths and scored on Smith’s fly.
Although troubled by a pulled thigh muscle, Hal McRae rapped a double and homer to spark the Royals to a 7–1 victory over the Twins, who were stopped on their eight-game winning streak. The Royals ripped into Eddie Bane for three runs in the first inning on a double by Amos Otis, single by George Brett and doubles by McRae and John Mayberry. The Royals added three more runs in the third on McRae’s homer, two walks and a double by Buck Martinez. Brett doubled in the eighth and scored on another two-bagger by Mayberry. For the 24th time this season, Brett had three or more hits in one game.
Davey Lopes and Bill Buckner combined to produce the Dodgers’ two runs in support of Burt Hooton, who shut out the Astros, 2–0, for his first victory since July 5. Lopes was safe on an error in the fourth inning, stole second and scored on a single by Buckner. In the seventh, Lopes walked, stole second again and counted on another single by Buckner.
Led by George Scott, who drove in two runs with a pair of singles, the Brewers defeated the Orioles, 4–2. The Orioles held a 2–1 lead before the Brewers pushed the tying and leading tallies across the plate in the fifth inning on a double by Von Joshua, single by Jack Heidemann, grounder by Robin Yount and single by Scott. Hitting his second single in the seventh, Scott batted in the Brewers’ insurance marker.
Nailing Mark Fidrych for two-run homers, Roy White and Oscar Gamble batted the Yankees to a 4–3 victory over the Tigers before a crowd of 44,909. The Tigers picked up two runs in the first inning before White hit his round-tripper to tie the score in the third. The Tigers regained the lead with an RBI single by Willie Horton in the fourth, but Graig Nettles singled for the Yankees in the seventh and Gamble followed with his game-winning homer.
Ed Kranepool’s 100th career homer, coming with a man on base in the eighth inning, lifted the Mets to a 9–8 victory over the Expos. A pair of three-run outbursts in the seventh and eighth gave the Expos an 8–7 lead before Kranepool turned the tide with his circuit clout.
In a one-man show, Don Kessinger batted in all of the Cardinals’ runs in a split of a twi-night doubleheader with the Pirates. The Bucs, who ended their string of 26 scoreless innings, won the first game, 2–1, and the Redbirds took the second game, 4–2. Jim Rooker, the Pirates’ winner in the opener, hit a sacrifice fly for the initial run in the seventh inning, but the Cards tied the score in the eighth when Jerry Mumphrey singled and Kessinger doubled. With two out in the ninth, Duffy Dyer smashed a homer to win the game for the Pirates. Kessinger accounted for the Cards’ scoring in the nightcap with a two-run double in the eighth inning and two-run single in the ninth.
At Candlestick, while Jack Billingham pitched a three-hitter, the Reds rapped three Giant hurlers for 16 hits and rolled to a 9–0 victory. Ken Griffey was the leader of the attack with a triple and two singles, driving in two runs and scoring two. Dave Concepcion contributed three singles and three RBIs.
Making his fifth start, Paul Hartzell, Angels’ rookie righthander, posted a 4–0 victory for his second shutout of the Rangers this season. Tommy Davis drove in two runs with a single and sacrifice fly and Rusty Torres hit a homer to lead the Angels at bat.
San Diego Padres 3, Atlanta Braves 7
Oakland Athletics 7, Chicago White Sox 3
Philadelphia Phillies 0, Chicago Cubs 4
Philadelphia Phillies 8, Chicago Cubs 5
Boston Red Sox 0, Cleveland Indians 1
Minnesota Twins 1, Kansas City Royals 7
Houston Astros 0, Los Angeles Dodgers 2
Baltimore Orioles 2, Milwaukee Brewers 4
Detroit Tigers 3, New York Yankees 4
Montreal Expos 8, New York Mets 9
St. Louis Cardinals 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
St. Louis Cardinals 4, Pittsburgh Pirates 2
Cincinnati Reds 9, San Francisco Giants 0
California Angels 4, Texas Rangers 0
Strength in some blue chip issues combined with bargain hunting enabled the stock market yesterday to post its best gain in about three weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 8.07 points at 990.33, its high for the day. At noon, the key barometer was down 0.94, its low for the day. Yesterday’s gain in the Dow was its best since July 20 when it rose 8.81 points.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 990.33 (+8.07, +0.82%)
Born:
Troy Glaus, MLB third baseman and first baseman (Olympics, bronze medal, 1996; World Series champions-Angels, 2002 [MVP]; All-Star, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006; California Angels, Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves), in Tarzana, California.
Anoop Menon, Indian film actor, screenwriter and director in Malayalam films; in Kozhikode, Kerala state, India.
History Diaries 